Season preview: Wake Forest

Published: Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 10:19 PM.

Outlook: A lot has been said and written about the seven freshman that dominate Wake Forest’s roster and the rash of transfers that produced the need for such a large incoming class.

There’s a good reason for that. The performance of all those newcomers will likely make or break the Deacons’ season and by extension, perhaps, Jeff Bzdelik’s tenure as coach.

But while the freshmen are being counted on heavily, especially four-star point guard Codi Miller-McIntyre, Bzdelik has a pair of aces up his sleeve that will greatly enhance the youngsters’ chances for success.

Senior guard C.J. Harris and junior forward Travis McKie aren’t just two of the most underrated returning players in the ACC this season. They’re also two of the best.

Harris, a third-team All-ACC selection in 2011-12, is the second-leading active scorer in the league and the last remaining holdover from Wake’s most recent NCAA tournament appearance three seasons ago. McKie is an undersized power forward who Bzdelik calls “a throwback player” because he always seems to get the job done, especially on the boards, even if he doesn’t always look smooth doing it.

The duo is going to carry a heavy load, because other than sophomore shooting guard Chase Fischer, they are the only players on the team to have played in a college game. The reason for that experience gap is a mass exodus that has seen eight players either transfer or get dismissed from the program in Bzdelik’s two seasons at Wake.

The latest to leave were junior point guard Tony Chennault (Villanova), center Carson Desrosiers (Providence) and combo guard Anthony Fields (Bradley). Their departures haven’t done anything to enhance Bzdelik’s already shaky popularity among the Deacon faithful and don’t reflect well on the stability of the program. But in the long run, the roster shuffle could result in a significant upgrade at two key positions.

Outlook: A lot has been said and written about the seven freshman that dominate Wake Forest’s roster and the rash of transfers that produced the need for such a large incoming class.

There’s a good reason for that. The performance of all those newcomers will likely make or break the Deacons’ season and by extension, perhaps, Jeff Bzdelik’s tenure as coach.

But while the freshmen are being counted on heavily, especially four-star point guard Codi Miller-McIntyre, Bzdelik has a pair of aces up his sleeve that will greatly enhance the youngsters’ chances for success.

Senior guard C.J. Harris and junior forward Travis McKie aren’t just two of the most underrated returning players in the ACC this season. They’re also two of the best.

Harris, a third-team All-ACC selection in 2011-12, is the second-leading active scorer in the league and the last remaining holdover from Wake’s most recent NCAA tournament appearance three seasons ago. McKie is an undersized power forward who Bzdelik calls “a throwback player” because he always seems to get the job done, especially on the boards, even if he doesn’t always look smooth doing it.

The duo is going to carry a heavy load, because other than sophomore shooting guard Chase Fischer, they are the only players on the team to have played in a college game. The reason for that experience gap is a mass exodus that has seen eight players either transfer or get dismissed from the program in Bzdelik’s two seasons at Wake.

The latest to leave were junior point guard Tony Chennault (Villanova), center Carson Desrosiers (Providence) and combo guard Anthony Fields (Bradley). Their departures haven’t done anything to enhance Bzdelik’s already shaky popularity among the Deacon faithful and don’t reflect well on the stability of the program. But in the long run, the roster shuffle could result in a significant upgrade at two key positions.

At point guard, Wake has replaced the slow, mistake-prone Chennault with the jewel of its class. While the Deacons are placing the point guard duties squarely on the shoulders of Miller-McIntyre, the job of filling the void in the frontcourt will likely be handled by a committee of young big men.

Collectively, the group of 7-footer Andre Washington, 6-9, 235-pound Devin Thomas and Tyler Cavanaugh promise to be a much more physical and productive low-post presence than either the painfully passive Desrosiers or his underachieving backup Ty Walker.

At the small forward position, Wake suffered an unexpected hit during its preseason exhibition trip to Canada when improved 6-10 sophomore Daniel Green suffered a season-ending knee injury. Green’s absence leaves an opening for the rookie duo of 6-8 Aaron Rountree and 6-6 Arnaud William Adala Moto.

Quotable quote: “Everybody is looking to me and C.J. to be leaders. We definitely have to be role models on and off the court. There are a lot of things the freshmen don’t know about being a college student and a basketball player. We’ve embraced the role and continue to try to teach them every day.” Junior forward Travis McKie.

Projection: Thanks to a new rule allowing coaches to work with their players for up to eight hours a week during the summer and an abbreviated late-summer exhibition trip to Canada, Bzdelik and his young team has been able to get a badly needed head start on their preparations for the coming season.

Though the preseason games against Canadian schools Brock and Ryerson turned out to be costly because of the injury to Green, they also provided some good news thanks to the promising performances of freshmen Miller-McIntyre and Cavanaugh.

Even positive is the possibility that in his third season, Bzdelik may finally have some stability in his program now that the roster is made up almost exclusively of players that he recruited. Though that roster is extremely young, dominated by seven incoming freshmen, the Deacons are blessed with two experienced veterans with All-ACC caliber.

With Harris and McKie providing stability, leadership and a combined 30-plus points per game of scoring, Wake has the foundation of a unit that, if nothing else, has the potential to be competitive in every game it plays and take another step back toward respectability.

How many of those games it actually wins depends entirely on how quickly Miller-McIntyre and the other newcomers adjust to the college game and handle the high – if not entirely fair – expectations that have been placed upon them.